The West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee made posted, "When a big tree falls, the ground shakes. #BharatRatnaRajivGandhi.", on micro-blogging social network site, Twitter on Saturday to commemorate former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi's birth anniversary but it became a huge embarrassment for the party.

This tweet was put out as a Rajiv Gandhi quoted on the occasion of his birth anniversary. He made this controversial statement soon after the assassination of his mother Indira Gandhi.

Twitterattis were quick to point out how the party seemed to be endorsing a statement that had widely been criticised over the decades. The tweet had been deleted later, but the issue had been viral by then.

While state Congress leaders remained unavailable for comment on the matter, phone calls to the social media manager of the party's state unit remained unanswered. Alliance partner CPI (M), however, termed the incident as unfortunate.  

CPI(M) leader Fuad Halim said, "The congress party has put its foot into the mouth with this faux-pas. It is unfortunate how it is trying to recall an incident where the Sikh community was severely penalised for the death of Indira Gandhi,"

On 31st October, 1984, Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two of her bodyguards who were Sikhs. In the aftermath of the assassination, many places including Delhi saw attacks on Sikhs and their properties. In such a heated atmosphere, former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi made this infamous comment, which was treated as justification for attacks on the Sikhs.

By Prakriti Neogi